Watching History

I just viewed the documentary Howard Zinn: You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train. It was very good. I've enjoyed Howard Zinn's writings for years but now I get to put a face to the name and I have a sense of his personal history. I've read his People's History of the United States and now I have a view on a Documentary Maker's History of Howard Zinn. Fascinating.

My favourite quote by Zinn in this video:

When I started studying, when I went to college for the first time at age 27, and began studying history, and I had already myself begun to read the history of labour struggles in this country, when I looked in my textbooks for the stories of these labour struggles, they weren't there. I looked for the Lawrence textile strike of 1912, it wasn't there. I looked for the Colorado Coal Strike of 1913-1914, it wasn't there. I looked for name of Mother Jones, it wasn't there, I looked the name of Big Bill Heywood, it wasn't there. I was in graduate school. I was way up there. I discovered in graduate school that you get basically the same point of view that you get in elementary school only with footnotes.

I didn't realize that he had written two plays:

• Emma: A Play in Two Acts About Emma Goldman, American Anarchist
• Marx in Soho: A Play on History
  

I like his histories, I like the personality in this documentary, I wonder if I would like these plays. Chances are "no". But Emma Goldman is a favourite of mine, so I'm going to put some effort into getting hold of that play and reading it!